3 beaches in 2 weeks...continued....

Day 13 (Pemba to Maputo) This was just a traveling day cause I
basically flew from the northern tip of the country to the southern
tip. For dinner, we ate at this great South African pizza place called
Mimo's, and it really made me miss Italian food.

Day 14 (Maputo) I started to feel better finally and walked around the
capital of Mozambique with my friends. We'd met up a bunch of other
people, had coffee and juice, went shopping, ate Indian food again
(this time it stayed down haha), and then bought wine and cheese back
to the hotel. Yea… I really didn't feel like I was in Africa at all.

Day 15 (Maputo to Inhassoro) I had to go to a JOMA conference, so we
woke up early at 4 to catch a TCO bus to Inhassoro. Now, if you can't
fly in Mozambique, the next step up would be the TCO bus. It has AC,
comfortable seats, a bathroom, and even serve you snacks. This bus
also took 10 hours, but it was not nearly as awful as all the other 10
hour buses that I took. When we got there, they'd put us in this nice
resort where the rooms were fashioned like tents. It kind of made you
feel like you were camping, but not really cause there were bathrooms
with awesomely hot showers and everything. I was so happy cause that
bed must have been the best bed I've slept in since my arrival in
Mozambique. It felt like sleeping on clouds!

Day 16 – 17 (Inhassoro) Okay, so I was basically here because we had a
conference but the work day ended around 3 so we had the rest of the
day to chill. The resort was right next to the beach, so that you
could just walk down a flight of stairs to hit the waves. I would rate
this beach higher than the Pemba beach because it was less secluded
and not as touristy, but not as nice as Chokas Beach in Ilha because
the water was not as calm and sand not as white, and the beach not as
isolated. I loved Chokas! Too bad it was so cold that I didn't want to
swim, but it was still nice being by a beach. We also got to see
Colin's site. Inhassoro is a pretty small town, but also full of
foreigners because of the nice beach. It's only maybe one hour from
the main highway, so that it's not difficult for him to travel. He
says he runs along the beach all the time, which is so awesome. I wish
I could run along the beach every morning and watch the sun rise. We
didn't get a chance to visit his school.

Day 18 (Inhassoro to Vilankulos to Maputo to Beira) Damn. I was so
tired by this day. I just wanted to go home, but our flight from
Vilankulos to Maputo did not leave until 5 PM, so we had the morning
to chill at the Vilankulos Beach. This is not my first time at this
beach, but I would rate it my least favorite since I spent the least
amount of time exploring this beach. It's just as touristy as Pemba,
but I think I don't like it because Vilankulos the town is just too
crowded for my taste. I'm glad I don't have this as my sight because
with all those people and tourists, it would be a lot harder to
integrate. It made me love Buzi so much with its one river, sparse
cars, rice fields, vast empty grasslands. The day also sucked because
my flight was scheduled for that same night at 9:30 PM but everyone
else got to stay another night in the city, so it was sad having to
say good-bye. Finally got to Beira at 11:30 and had to have my awesome
friend Orlando come pick me up at the airport to stay at his house. I
haven't talked about Orlando yet but he's one of my favorite people in
Mozambique. He's so smart, speaks English so well, and is so kind and
appreciative. He's had many other volunteers as teachers and knows
what a big difference Peace Corps can make, and unlike most others, he
has plans to improve his country. He has goals and dreams to help his
community, and for this, I really respect him. It takes something for
a person who comes from such poor upbringing to grow up and not always
think about getting rich and making money. There are plenty of people
who are intelligent and have the skills to make money, but in order to
think about helping other people… damn. I'm impressed. He also gave me
his bed and slept on the floor! That's just the Mozambican way, and
that's another reason why I love him.

Day 19 (Beira to Buzi) Finally, thank god! I'm home.

3 beaches in 2 weeks...whut whut?!

Didn't I say I had grand plans to travel? Boy, did I do that. So here
is a summary of my 2 week vacation. I basically traveled the entire
country, 7 different provinces, in 19 days. Here's what I did:

Day 1: (Buzi to Sussundenga) Left the house at around 9 AM and
traveled all day by chapa to arrive at my destination at around 5:30
PM. Met my friends, cooked and ate dinner, and then off to bed.

Day 2: (Sussudenga) This is the site of my friend Dov. He teaches
Chemistry to 9th graders, and today, he is having a science fair for
his students. This is a school level fair, where winners will be
chosen to attend the regional fair. I was very happy to have been
there. I had my fair a couple of weeks ago, but it was not nearly as
successful. I only had 6 participants, and their projects were not as
creative as some of Dov's students. He had 15 participants, with a
great panel of judges and a lot of participation from the audience. I
was very proud of him. The turn-out of the fair rests entirely on how
hard the Peace Corp volunteer works, and judging from the many people
that showed up, he worked very hard. It's always amazing to me how
these students can come up with these different experiments with
resources available in their towns. How can they think of these
different things when some of their teachers don't really know how to
teach, when their libraries have no books, and when they cannot go
online to do research? Shocking.

After the fair, we ate with our country director, who also attended,
and then said good-bye to him. Then Dov and I climbed a little hill
and walked around Sussundenga. I LOVE visiting other volunteers'
sites. It makes you appreciate your site so much more, and it makes
you feel less alone. Sussundenga was a really beautiful site. The
drive into the town is full of endless land and mountains, and because
of the higher elevation, it was nice and cool. The town was large
enough for him to get a lot of what he needed in terms of food, but
was also small enough that you could walk all the way through in 1 to
2 hours. ( I should know. I got lost and did end up walking almost the
entire town). Suss was also only 45 minutes from the large city,
Chimoio, so he had no problem traveling. Though it was very beautiful,
it made me appreciate my site a lot, too. I was so happy that I have
an indoor bathroom, so that taking morning showers outside with the
cold breeze was not a problem. I'm also grateful to my neighbors, and
I'm also happy that many of the people in Buzi know who I am. They're
used to having a foreigner around, so they don't make fun of me as
much.

Day 3: (Sussudenga to Chimoio) In the morning, we walked around Dov's
site some more so that I could look for clothes to buy. A lot of mine
are starting to have holes in them, but we were not successful in
finding good clothes. After lunch, we headed for Chimoio. We were
planning on taking the 4AM bus from here to the next site, Quelimane,
a 10 hour trip away. Well, when we got there, the tickets were already
sold out, so we had to stay at another volunteer's site, and find a
ride the next day. So, we called up Trineise, a health volunteer,
whose site was Chimoio. She had a very nice house to herself, but I'm
not sure about having Chimoio as a site. Although it's a very nice
city, my favorite by far, it's too large. Nobody knows your name.
People don't come to your house to visit. You can't really walk around
at night. Dov and I got lost and walked around for almost an hour
looking for our pizza restaurant. I much prefer the small town feel of
Buzi. She was very nice to put us up. It's awesome that we can just
crash at people's houses without having to pay for a hotel. With all
that money we saved, Dov and I decided to splurge on pizza for dinner,
and damn, it was sooooooo good.

Day 4: (Chimoio to Quelimane) Since we missed the bus that would take
us directly to Quelimane, we had to get up at 5 to catch a chapa out
of Chimoio to another town where we could catch another bus to
Quelimane. Luckily, we made it to Inchope and by 7:30 AM, were on our
way on a bus. The bus ride was from 7:30 to 4:30. That was 9 hours!
The distance is not that far, but with the roads being bad, the bus
not being very fast, and us having stops every couple of hours for
people to pee in the bushes, it took us forever! Good thing we hadn't
slept that well the night before and I had a book to read. When we got
to Quelimane, we had 3 options: paying for a hotel, staying with a
volunteer, or sleeping on the bus. Staying with a volunteer meant that
we had to get a hold of her, and neither of us have yet to meet this
girl. Paying for a hotel meant spending money, so that we didn't want
to do. The other option was to sleep on the bus. We had to buy our
ticket to our next stop, Nampula, that night anyway, and in this
country, you can just sleep on the bus until it leaves early the next
morning. I didn't really like this option because sleeping on the bus
meant having to deal with mosquitoes buzzing in your ear the whole
night, not to mention having to sit up. We were so lucky to have
gotten in contact with the volunteer there, Sarah, who totally hooked
us up with a place to stay. Peace Corps volunteers are the best! Even
though we'd never met, she offered us a mattress, and her house had a
friggin' shower! I was so ridiculously happy after that 10 hour bus
ride.

My thoughts on Quelimane as a site. Though Sarah had a bombass house,
I did not like her site. The city was a very large city, larger than
Chimoio; I think the 4th largest city in Mozambique. It was filthy in
some parts, and crowded. Walking to dinner that night, I was afraid of
getting mugged. Again, you don't get to know people and they don't
know you as well. Something about being in a city makes me lose that
feeling of comradery and tranquility that I have in my little town.

Day 5: (Quelimane to Nampula) So, I went from Chimoio, central, to
Quelimane, a little more north, to Nampula, which is basically the
north. Dov and I had to wake up 4:30 AM that morning to catch the bus
to Nampula. Good thing we bought our ticket the night before. Though
the first bus ride was also long, this bus ride seemed worse for some
reason. I didn't like that they packed so many people into the bus.
All the seats were already sold and occupied, yet we kept making stops
along the way to pick up more and more people. There were tons of
people sitting in the bus isle and towards the front where the door
was. It made it way difficult to get out and pee, and it was so hot.
Dov and I got really bored, too, so we ended up playing 20 questions a
lot. We did not arrive in Nampula until 3 PM, the 3rd largest city in
Mozambique.

This city houses our Peace Corps office for the northern regions, but
not sites for volunteers. Therefore, Dov and I had to walk around with
our Lonely Planet book looking for a place to stay. We finally found a
place that was cheap and gave a tiny discount to PC volunteers. When
we got to our room, it had an odor to it. The shower did not have hot
water, and though it advertised AC, there was none. I didn't care too
much because I was happy they had any kind of shower, period. We were
unpacking when Dov opened a drawer, and we saw something furry with a
tail. It was definitely some kind of animal, but he immediately shut
it. I don't know why, but he opened the drawer again, but the animal
had disappeared. But being Dov, he tried the drawer to the left of it,
and found nothing. I warned him not to open the one to the right, but
he did it anyway, and the damn rat leaped out the drawer and scurried
across the room under our bed. WTF! I was really freaked out, but what
could we have done? So we just went to dinner and then went to bed.
Stupid cheap hotel. Dinner was really good, though, cause I got to eat
Lebanese food and met up with 2 other volunteers on their way through
Nampula, as well. Yum! It's funny how there are volunteers everywhere.

Day 6: (Nampula to Muecate) We got out of that rat-infested hotel
early and headed over to the Peace Corps office to meet up our friend
Diana, who we were going to travel with the rest of the way. After
that, the 3 of us walked around Nampula for a bit and then had lunch
with another volunteer from our group Margaret, a health volunteer
from the North. Lebanese food, and I got ice-cream. Damn man. You
don't appreciate ice-cream until you never get to have it, so that
even the soft-serve stuff like the kind from McDonalds would make you
orgasm in your pants. I LOVE ice-cream! Then we walked to the chapa
stop to travel to Diana's site, a small town about 1 hour outside of
Nampula.

Diana and her roommate Rebekah, both from my year, had a wonderfully
huge house. It was so cute! But the girls did not get along with the
director of their school and the town was brown and dusty. I'm sure
there is real beauty to it, but it made me miss Buzi a little since
our site is so green and the buildings are somewhat colonial looking.
It was nice to catch up with them.

Day 7: (Muecate to Ilha de Mozambique) We left around 5:30 AM by chapa
and arrived at Ilha around lunch time. Thank goodness that wasn't too
long a ride. Finally made it to the goal of my travels.

Fucking Ilha… It was such a wonderful site! Did you know that it's a
World Heritage Center? Not in many places can you find this
combination of Indian, Chinese, African, and Portuguese culture. This
island was discovered by Vasco da Gama around the same time America
was supposedly discovered by Christopher Columbus. The Portuguese then
proceeded to transform it into this huge trading spot, and since the
Portuguese also had territorial claims in Macau and India, they
brought a lot of that influence over to Ilha, as well.

Ilha is actually an island that's connected by a 3km bridge to the
main land. The town is actually divided into 2 parts: the stone town,
and the Mecula town. The stone town was the Portuguese part, where
houses were made mostly of stone. The Mecula town was the African
part, where houses were made of mud, reeds, or concrete, the normal
way. Most of the people lived in the Mecula part. The stone part is
where the tourist hotels and restaurants were, the hostpital, and the
school. My friend Meagan was lucky enough to be placed in Ilha, and
had a house in the stone part of town, so again, free lodging for us!

When we got there, we ate lunch at a nice café owned by some Eurpeans.
As we walked through the town earlier, I'd already felt like we'd left
Africa from all the stone houses, but eating at this nice café made me
feel even more like I'd left the continent. In the afternoon, we went
to the beach. My first real beach in Mozambique! The water was clear,
the sand white, and only a few tourists around. What more could I have
asked for? We sunned and swam, and on chilled on the beach. Later in
the afternoon, more of the locals came around to swim, so it felt a
little more like Africa again, but a more beautiful and relaxing
Africa.

On our way back to Meagan's house, we saw a guy carrying 2 giant
lobsters in his hand walking down the street, and we bought one for 6
bucks. It was about the size of lower arm, from fingers to elbow. WE
boiled that baby up and lemon-butter sauced it. Soooooo good. My mouth
is watering as I write this. YUM –EE. Nothing like fresh lobster. It
was so funny cause Diana had never had lobster before, and she loved
it. No one knew how to cook it, but leave it to the girl from Texas to
represent. Then we were still hungry to so went for beers and dinner
at the local restaurant. More fresh fish curry, Mozambican style. I'd
died and gone to seafood heaven.

Day 8: (Ilha to Chokas) The next day, we'd wanted to leave Ilha for
another island beach off of Ilha called Chokas Beach, but it rained,
so we decided to do the museum tours of Ilha and look at the oldest
fort in Sub-Saharan Africa first. I took a tour of the old governor's
house. Before Mozambique got its independence 35 years ago, it was
controlled by the Portuguese, who decided that Ilha was the capitol of
Mozambique. They'd built this huge house for their governor, and I got
to tour it. They'd brought over a lot of furniture from China and
India, and I think these two cultures also had a very large influence
on the way the people lived and navigated the waters around
Mozambique. I also got to tour the church and saw how they designed
their stone houses to collect water. It was awesome! Then we went to
the fort. It was really pretty and well-laid out, but I was toured out
by this time, so I just took a whole lot of pretty pictures.

Then we ordered egg sandwiches to-go and since the weather got so much
nicer, we headed off to Chokas Beach. Okay, so Chokas, hands down, is
the best beach I've been to. If you're the type to like beaches with
nice resorts, top-of-the notch hand and feet service, lined with bars
offering all types of good drinks and food, and hot men and women in
skimpy bikinis to look at, then Chokas is NOT the beach for you. But
if you're like me, and you like the white sand, the clear, calm water,
the breeze blowing through your hair as you sit bathing in the sun,
and the sound of the waves hitting the shores, then Chokas is the
beach of your dreams. It's exactly that. We'd found a shack to stay
in, with no electricity nor bathroom. I had to sneak into another
house to use their bathroom, but atleast it was cheap. The guard of
the shack was also our chef, since we just bought fish, octopus, and
clams fresh off the beach and let him cook it for us. We'd tried to
walk down a little ways to the only restaurant in sight to drink, but
it also didn't have energy for a long time. Good thing the beers were
cold.

So if there was no electricity, and no "scene", why did I adore Chokas
so much? I guess because of the tranquility of it all. It was so
shocking to me that there still existed places undiscovered by man
that were so gorgeous. When we got there, there seriously was no one
on the beach except the four of us. The shacks and houses were up a
little ways, so you couldn't even see them, so it was almost like
being on a gorgeous beach on a deserted island. We swam, we read, and
we just laid there listening to the ocean. No music from some bar up.
No children screaming. Maybe because I'd been cooped up in my little
village for too long and was too ecstatic at the sight of a beach.
Maybe because I was awed by the fact that this dreamy beach has not
been polluted with human existence. Who knows. I was really happy.

Day 9: (Chokas to Ilha to Carapira) That night it was really cold and
uncomfortable to sleep cause the house with no energy had no mattress
as well. I didn't bring a sleeping bag, and the breeze was very strong
at night, but that awfulness washed away with the waves as I watched
the sun come up. And then I took my IPOD and walked along the shores
for an hour before swimming in the morning ocean. Damn…. THAT's the
reason you ought to join Peace Corps! Not to help people, but for the
chance to visit places like this! Haha… just kidding. But seriously,
if I had not joined PC, I never could have imagined a beach like this.
Too bad we only had 1 day there, and had to head back to Ilha the next
morning to travel some more. We showered at Meagan's and ate lunch on
Ilha before heading off to visit another volunteer's site in Carapira,
Amanda's site.

Carapira is a very, very small town, but it's located right along a
highway, so it's not difficult to travel from there. Amanda's school
is a technical school, which meant that it was for students who wanted
to become agricultural workers or carpenters. She only had 3 to four
turmas a day, with the class size ranging from 16 to 25 students. Can
you believe that?! I have 5 to 6 turmas a day ranging from 50 to 70
students. Her students pay around 2500 meticais a year to attend,
whereas my students pay 300 meticais a year. So ofcourse, the
facilities were a lot nicer. She was very well integrated into her
small town.

See what I mean by each volunteer having a completely different site?
That's why you can't really enter into training and expect to come out
prepared cause there's no way the training staff can prepare you for
the range of sites available. I always wonder why people would quit
during training. All you need to do is stick it out a couple of months
and your life could completely change. Well, anyways, we walked around
with Amanda a little and had a great dinner.

Day 10: (Carapira to Pemba) We left the next day around 7:30 AM and
caught a ride on an 18-wheeler to arrive at Pemba at around 5 PM.
Starting here, the lodging just gets better and better. So…. Pemba is
boasted to have one of the most beautiful beaches in Mozambique. We
arrived on a Sunday, and the beach was packed. You can imagine my
disappointment after being on Chokas, but people assured us that it
was only Sunday traffic. They're usually not that packed. Because of
the beautiful beaches, there is a lot of foreigners in Pemba, just
like in Ilha. That made it cleaner, more expensive, and safer to walk
around, mostly. Very touristy. Our lodging is called Russel's Place,
which is basically a camp for backpackers. I never knew what it felt
like to be a backpacker until I joined Peace Corps. I gotta say, it's
pretty awesome. You pick yourself a guidebook, pack some clothes, a
tent, and a sleeping bag and get on the road. Follow the directions in
the book and show yourself around. It's awesome. Sometimes, the tent
is not even necessary cause at Russel's, they provide you with a bed
and sheets, very much like a dorm situation. The bathroom is communal,
and it even had hot water, which felt so good. You can go eat at a
restaurant or you can just buy food, make yourself a campfire and
cook. When you have time, sit around the bar and drink and meet other
backpackers and hear their story. Unfortunately, we already had our
own group so we didn't do any mingling, but if I were to go by myself…
shit… I'd talk to other people. We were also so tired from traveling,
all we could do was eat and then we went to bed.

Day 11: (Pemba) It rained this day, so all we did was find a
restaurant on the beach and vegged out. So relaxing to listen to your
ipod and read a book on the beach. Then the sun came out, and we went
tide pooling. You know me, I love science and biology, so it was so
fun for me to go into the tide pools to look for funky sea creatures.
I found some really cool sea urchins, starfishes, eels, snails, all
kinds of things. Then we met up with Sara, a health volunteer that
works in Pemba and went to her house. Remember how I said every
volunteer has a different experience? Well, Sara lives maybe 5 minutes
from the beach and walks along the beach everyday to get to her
workplace. There are tons of foreigners and ex-patriots in Pemba so
she has lots of foreigner friends. However, everything is also more
expensive in Pemba, so she can't really save money and doesn't travel
out of site that much, unlike me, who likes to get out every chance I
get. Things are also way cheaper in Buzi, and since it is so in the
middle of nowhere, no one ever comes to visit me. Sara, on the other
hand, has a visitor every month, which I wouldn't think is too great
cause then you'd have to play host on a low budget. Not too fun. Damn.
Okay so I'm just gonna post this now but I still have more days to
describe and one more beach to rate, but that'll have to be for next
time.

6 month update

So… this is going to be one of those more introspective entries, since I've completed 6 months, more or less, at site. Looking back at my old journal entries, I feel like my perspective of the Peace Corps experience has changed a lot.

For one thing, you can't possibly understand what it's like to be in the Peace Corps unless you do it. I mean, you can read about it; you can watch documentaries, and you can listen to others tell their stories, but until you've experienced it yourself, you really have no idea. The experience is just very different and unique for every individual, depending on your personality, your site, the people you meet, and the past experiences you bring to the table. I can sit here and try and try to explain it, and you can listen, but you would never know the significance it had in my life.

 They say that Peace Corps changes who you are. Well, up to date, I would disagree with that. Peace Corps does not change who you are. All of my experiences here have just helped me discover who I am, made me confirm aspects of my personality that I knew already existed and made me realize all the things that I was capable of doing. I don't think that I have changed who I am. Let's demonstrate this with an example:

 I used to be borderline obsessive compulsive before I came here. I hated clutter, and I wanted things to be clean all the time. However, can you really be that clean here in Mozambique? I've got spiders and termites all over my room (they're laying eggs in my closet); our house floor has not been washed since I've moved in (7 months!); I re-wear my clothes 3 or 4 times before I wash them (because they wear out so quickly when you wash them and I didn't bring that much with me). Don't get me wrong. Dirty dishes still bother me; too much shit being all over our dining room table still bugs me; and when I cook, I put everything I used back right away or that clutter would bother me (yea, this one is definitely OCD). However, I've learned to deal with a lot of other stuff. You just learn to not care as much. Hence, my point illustrated. I've always been and probably will always remain a neat-freak. This much about my personality I knew, but what I didn't know was – could I live a non-neat life? If everything around me was a mess, could I ignore it and continue on? If I couldn't take a bath for 3 days, could I do it? If I had to do #2 in the bush (unclean food and long chapa ride – enough said), can I do it? And yes (ha! Thank god!), I can! I can do all that! I've learned that I can survive and still be happy in non-neat environments, and that's made me very happy.

 Well, that's just one example. There are other things that I've discovered but to describe them all would take too long, so I'll leave it at that for now.

 Since the end of the second trimester is ending next week, I want to take this time to talk about one of my goals when I first entered into Peace Corps: to be able to teach science effectively in a resource-less environment using another language. Well, that goal is shot to hell since I don't teach science but English instead. Even though I ran science fair for our school this year, it was so difficult to explain the scientific method to students that I really just half-assed it. The whole thing just showed me one thing: I just didn't apply myself that much. Damn, well one of the things I said when I first decided I want to do this – meaning Peace Corps – was that I would work really hard and try my best for 2 years. I imagined that I would have no life, no time to travel, no friends, and no TV, so that all my life would involve is work. I'd figured I'd be really lonely and bored and miss home all the time, and the best way to combat that was to work.

 How wrong was I? I've made friends, mostly other Peace Corps volunteers. My roommate and I watch TV on the laptop all the time. We leave site and go party once a month. I'm planning on traveling every break. I don't just have work here, and lately, I'm finding it very hard to focus on work. It sucks that you work so hard on your lessons, and you think your students understood what you taught, but then the end of the trimester comes, and they all fail their final exam. OR, even worse, they try to cheat. It makes you think…damn, what is the fucking point then? Why do I have to put in all this effort, when the result is the same, and I just feel even shittier because I tried so hard? Isn't it better not to try, not to care as much? My life would be easier without stressing over the students. And sometimes, that theory is true. I shouldn't stress too much over things I can't control because if that's the case, then every time I travel anywhere, I would have a panic attack. Anyway, why did I say all this? Just trying to explain why my original goal of working extremely hard for 2 years is shot to hell.

 Being here for 6 months has also made me weary of the people. I mean, I never was a people person in the first place. It has always been difficult to read people, but it's especially hard here. People are always asking us for stuff. Can I borrow some money? Can I have 4 tomatoes? Can you help me translate something? Can I borrow your camera? Can you help me type this up? Can we use the journalism club's ink to print this out? Vanessa and I talk about it all the time. We just want people to STOP ASKING US FOR STUFF! I hate when my trust is displaced. If I lend you money, freakin' pay me back! Don't not pick up my calls and avoid me for 3 weeks. Don't make excuses. Don't borrow my bike and then break the pedal and say it's not your fault. Why would I lend out stuff anymore? But you know, then you feel bad cause it's really not that big a deal to lend out the stuff, IF the person can take care of it and returns it in the same condition. The problem is, I don't know people well enough to judge if this will happen. I hate that! I guess this learning who to trust is just something that takes longer than 6 months to learn.

 However, unlike learning to read people, learning how to travel around the country is a much easier task to take on. I remember when I first got here, how scared I was. When the Peace Corps car dropped me off at site, I thought to myself, "I'm never leaving site." How could I just hitchhike? Remember those old entries of being fearful of being stuck in Tica? Well… been there… done that! Got into a chapa accident where the damn car flipped? Check! Slept in a stranger's home that same weekend? Check! Still want to travel? Hell yes! The country is actually not that difficult to navigate, once you've done it. I love that I can hitchhike with strangers in this country without fear of being kidnapped and killed. I love that I can travel from one city to another with just my backpack. Oh… and do I have grand plans… tell you more about it later!

chicken killing and more...

So… I killed a chicken today. What an indescribable feeling. How can I
explain the emotions of taking a life? All I can say is… it's nothing
like I thought it was going to be. I was very excited at first, having
purchased the chicken yesterday for cheap since it was Children's Day
here in Mozambique. I've seen people do it a couple of times, carved
the neck, let it bleed out, and then pour hot water to pluck the
feathers. I've even seen them carve with very dull blades. Well, with
my very sharp Calphalon, I thought it was going to be a snap.

I had to step on the legs and the wings and then hold the neck with
the left hand while cutting with the knife in the right hand. It takes
longer than you think, even with a very sharp knife, and while I was
shearing away at the tough neck skin, I could feel the chicken
struggling away for its life in my hand. At that time, I began to feel
a pang of sadness deep in my gut, and all I wanted to do was kill the
chicken faster. I didn't want it to suffer under the blade anymore,
and I became very serious with the knife. When the deed was done, and
the neck broken, I still had to hold down the body and the head to
bleed it out. That was a terrible feeling. You can just feel life
draining from the chicken with every wince under your hand. I don't
think I'd want to do it again. I'm sure I could probably get used to
killing chickens if it's the only thing I could do to eat it, but damn
it, why would I want to do that again if someone else could do it for
me? Does that make me a hypocrite if I like to eat meat but I don't
want to do the killing?

But you know, there's also this strange feeling of conquest
afterwards, like yea… that's right… I KILLED A CHICKEN!

Oh, and today was also Chama de Unidade (translated Torch of Unity),
where Mozambique has the tradition of carrying a torch from the
northernmost city to the southernmost city of the country. It's kind
of like the Olympics torch, except this one is supposed to represent
everyone joining hands in unity, every part of the country. Someone
told me that this tradition started after they got their independence
from the Portuguese and only occurs every 5 years. The torch would be
passed from people to people within city limits but would be held by
someone on a car going from town to town. Ofcourse, at night, they
stop to rest. So, this torch has been traveling for about 2 weeks now.

Boy, am I lucky that I got to enjoy this and the election while I
completed service here since these things occur every like 5 years.
Anyway, it was such a special occasion to me because we don't have
anything like this in America. I mean, we have the 4th of July, but
not everyone in the city comes together like the Mozambicans do here.
Sure, we have get-togethers, but mostly with our friends and family.
Here, when I say get-together, I mean GET-TOGETHER! As in the entire
town cancels work and school to await the arrival of the torch and
everyone comes out to try to touch it. It was so crazy. The entire
town! Now THAT'S what I call unity.

pictures... i know...low quality, but what can you expect

Below, 1st three pictures are when we grilled for Woman's Day here with our friends. The next two pictures are of the neighbor kids playing naked in the rain. It's so awesome that whenever it rains here, the kids just take off all their clothes and go running naked in the street. There's also one of Jackie in her crazy dance moves. Next is a picture of my journalism students and I at our regional conference along with my counterpart. They did me so proud at that conference! They even put together masks and did a rendition of Thriller! Next picture is my cute and oh so gentle dog Itchy. Last one is of me and Vanessa dancing the pasada, a Mozambican dance, completely sober! 

finally update

Today was such a crappy day. One of my turmas, Turma G: the one that’s behind all the other turmas, had P.E. and a soccer game, so they came to class 15 minutes late. I didn’t know that they were going to come at all because they’ve skipped my class before. So, I decided to join the ones that did show up with another turma that has me the next period, just so I could leave early. I debated for awhile because I knew that if Turma G did end up showing up, there would not be enough room for all 2 turmas to fit into one room, but I did not want to waste time teaching only 7 people. Unfortunately, those guys did show up, and like I’d figured, there was not enough room. We were reviewing for a test, and I’d told them that even though they could not attend my class, they were still going to have a test the next class.

Man, I feel so awful about that now that I’ve gone home and think about it. How awful of a teacher am I, to give my students a test that they didn’t even get to review for knowing full well that more students will probably fail if they don’t get a review. How selfish am I, to give them the test just so that they wouldn’t even be more behind and I’d have to plan different lessons for them. Lately, though, I feel like I’m slacking a lot. Why, just on Monday, I skipped school because I was so hungover. Yea, can you believe it?! Being hungover in Mozambique! Well, the difference is, in America, when you’re hungover, you can call in sick. In Mozambique, you can just skip and nobody would give a rat’s ass. Teachers skip all the time because they just don’t care. Most of them don’t live in Buzi. They live in the city and just come to Buzi to teach on weekdays and return to their families on weekends. Many would either skip Friday or Monday because of traveling.

In any case, that doesn’t excuse my skipping. I should have been a good role model and represented American work ethic. Should not have gone drinking on a Sunday night! Although in my defense, it was a special occasion. I’d just met these Europeans last week, and they’re leaving town this weekend. I only wanted to make new friends, but before I knew it, I was drinking cheap whiskey and beer and barhopping. Thank god it was a Sunday night and no one was really out, but who knew my tolerance for liquor had decreased so tremendously?! Anyway, not that I was throwing up or anything like that the next day, but I just felt very stupid the next day. Ofcourse, I could have gone to teach, but you know, when nobody cares if you skip, it makes it all that much easier for you to just do it!

Anyway, had a little moment of reflection today and realize I just don’t try as hard anymore. I don’t spend as much time lesson planning as I did last trimester, and I don’t try to vary the activities so the students would have fun during class atleast. I’m so caught up in other things. Shit, last weekend was busy with a meeting and my friend from another city came to visit. The weekend before that was a neighbor’s birthday party. This weekend is going to be a student talent show. I always think I have Fridays off, but no, I have this to do and that to do… my journalism club… science fair starting up. Damn, where did my time management skills go? I gotta straighten myself up again.

Not that I don’t like being busy. I love it, but I just gotta straighten up my priorities again. Don’t worry. Stress here is so different than stress there. Hmm… how can I explain it? I guess, it’s because I know that this stress will end after 2 years. No matter how hard it gets, it ends eventually, and my life here isn’t permanent. I have something else to look forward to. Plus, I don’t have anything else to live for but work here, so it makes it a lot easier. When you don’t have a social life, no TV, no recreation, no accessible internet, you have plenty of time. Ofcourse, I’m starting to gain a social life and finding other recreation, so I’m finding myself without so much free time, but still, I’m not that stressed.

Oh, and I also like to take this time to talk about the new love of my life, my neighbor’s little daughter. Her name is Jackie, short for Jacqueline. Ahhh!! She is sooooo cute! I have some pictures of her that I just recently took, but I’m too lazy to upload it into my computer now, so I’ll just wait for next time. Plus, it takes way too long to upload. This little girl brightens up my day every time I am sad. When I’m frustrated from class, I just come home and look at her and talk to her. Ofcourse most of what she says makes no sense, but I love that abandonment about her. She just doesn’t care. She doesn’t care that I’m a different skin color, or that I’m not her family. I love that she never judges me. I love that she likes to hug me and cling to me. Sometimes, I secretly catch her just dancing and playing by herself and it’s hilarious! No worries. Pictures next time.

Also, I don't think I'm planning on going back to the states in december. My roommate is ending her service with a trip to South Africa, so I think I'm just going to go with her. Sooo.... if anyone is interested in meeting up in South Africa, holla!

robbery

isn't it funny that as soon as i posted the last entry, i got robbed? It was Easter saturday night and vanessa and i had gone to the catholic church in our town to watch the baptismal, which was really cool by the way and which i'll post pictures of later. We left at 9 and after the baptism, went to a discoteca until like 2 in the morning. We didn't even drink cause all our students were there and when we got home we found that they had entered our back door and stolen both our macs, my cell phone which i'd forgotten at home, and some other small things. We went to the police the next day and monday of the next week promptly got a call that they'd caught the thief but only 1 computer was recovered, vanessa's. Throughout the next week, they'd also recovered my computer and phone back, which is pretty great. I mean, i wasn't too devastated when it was taken but it's just so more convenient to have my computer back. The phone, though, with internet use and my only means of staying in touch with the US, I was really sad about. I also didn't like that it made me feel unsafe in my town and that any time we go anywhere we had to hide our stuff and make sure it's all locked up. I have to make sure to back up all my grades,too. Anyway, i'm just grateful to have my phone back.:-)