It’s been over 2 weeks since my initial post, and so much has happened!! This post is a
bit long, but bear with me - I have a lot to share.
To start, I
want to share with you all a video of a TED talk with Nigerian author
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi: “The danger of a single story”. We were shown this video during our 2 day
staging event in Philadelphia, and for many reasons, her words have really
stuck with me. If you have the time,
please watch this video before you continue to read.
If you do not
want to watch the video right now (I know my audience…many of you probably will
not), let me share a quote which gives a brief description of what she speaks
about: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes
is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story
become the only story.” Like many
Americans, I grew up a single story view of what Africa was like: a place of
famine, a place of disease, a place of ‘development’ and misfortune. After only 2 weeks here I am ashamed to admit
that I bought into, and also told this type of single story of Africa. But now that I am here, I hope to use this blog to tell more than the typical American single story of Africa - this is MY story.
About 2 weeks
ago, when I got off the plane in Maputo (the capitol city of Mozambique) with 64 other Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs), we were greeted warmly by the PC Mozambique Country Director
and current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). We were taken to a beautiful hotel - with an outdoor pool, endless buffet meals, happy hour drink specials, and this
spectacular view of the city of Maputo and the Indian Ocean.
We spent 2
days at the hotel going over security measures and medical need-to-knows, then departed in small buses (chapas) to a village about 80 km outside Maputo
to begin our official 3 month training. Upon
arrival, we found our host “moms” and families lined up to greet us, pieces of
paper bearing our names. When I found my name and my “mom”, she pulled me into
a big hug and lead me away my by the hand.
I tried to tell her I that I did not speak much Portuguese, but she did not
seemed worried at all - just smiled and lead me to her car and motioned for me
to get in. She brought me back to her house and helped me settle in. Here is a photo of my room on the day I first moved in
I learned
that my host mom, or “ Minha Mae”, is a recently retired Portuguese language
teacher, and I am the 5th Peace Corps Volunteer that she has hosted in her home. She does not speak
English, and because I did not speak Portuguese, communication first few days
consisted mostly of gesturing, pointing, and nodding/shaking heads. My host brother, age 13, allowed me to follow
him around the house the first few days pointing and gesturing as he said the
Portuguese words/phrases for everything. I thought that this would be my form of
communication for the next 3 months, but now after only 2 weeks, I can hold
real lengthy conversations with both of them!
The conversations are probably still grammatically incorrect on my end…
but at least now they can understand everything I say, and I can understand
them (they do speak extra slow when speaking to me, to make it easier to
understand).
Much of my
language improvement has been due to my daily training sessions or ‘school’ as my Mae
calls it, which takes place Monday-Fridays, 7:30am - 4:30pm. The first week, training consisted of mostly
hours of intense Portuguese language classes in small groups, which we were
placed into following an initial language placement interview. Needless to say,
I was placed into a ‘beginner’ class – we started with the Portuguese alphabet
on our first day of class – but we have all progressed rather quickly! This week, we have also began ‘teacher
training’ classes, to prepare us for our next 2 years teaching in Mozambican
high schools. All of our instructors are
native Mozambicans, and usually speak only Portuguese with us. (Luckily for my
group, our language instructor also an English teacher at a secondary
school level… so sometimes he will use English to explain things to us when we are REALLY struggling). It has been extremely
helpful to have instructors who not only teach us Portuguese, but can also shed insight on the education system, and lifestyles/culture here in
Mozambique. Our LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator) has given us advice on everything from how to greet someone in Portuguese to how to catch a chapa ride to Maputo. Here is a picture of my
class, out for lunch earlier this week with our instructor at the semi-weekly local market.
At this market (and all around town) we were encouraged to practice our Portuguese with the locals around town. This may seem like an awkward or painful task to complete, but here in our Mozambican village everyone is incredibly nice and friendly! When people pass each other on the
street, it is customary to greet each other with “Bom dia/Boa tarde/Boa noite”
(Good morning/afternoon/evening) – depending on time of day. In addition, most will also ask “How are you?” - even if they are complete strangers! Since obvious foreigners to the village, people have often taken extra
interest in us PSTs and made an extra effort to
simply say hello and ask about our day (at first I did not know how to respond,
so I would just smile and nod…but now I can greet and respone to people properly too!). The children here are the cutest – most will
yell out “Bom dia!” or more commonly a more informal “Ola!” when I pass them on
the street or pass by as they are playing in their yards. Earlier this week, I young girl (who I had
met a few time before) followed me home.
She asked me to play with her in the yard – we played hopping games with
an old tire, threw around a ball, and did cartwheels in the grass. Kids walking by would stop and watch, and
want to join in. Soon we had nearly 20
kids playing with us! I would not consider myself to be someone who is "good with kids", but these kids were adorably full of energy and easy to get along with! Eventually when it got dark I had
to send everyone home because it was time for my evening bath
and dinner.
Speaking of
bathing, I know many of my family members/former roommates were concerned that
I would not be able to shower as much here as I did in the U.S… not to worry –
I actually do the opposite. I bathe more
here! Cleanliness and appearance is very
important here in Mozambique. Most
people here take 2 bucket baths a day, and dress in fashionable, well-pressed
clothing. I have been trying to
integrate into this community, so of course I take 2 baths a day. For my bucket
baths, I boil a kettle of water, pour it into a large water bucket/basin and
add cold water until it reaches an acceptable bathing temperature. At my house, my “casa de banho” (bathroom or
bath house) is indoors, so I take my bucket to the tub area and use a smaller
bucket to pour water over myself as I bathe. At some other houses, the casa de banho is an extra house that is outside of the main house. At my house, it is routine to take one bath in the morning
when we wake up, and one in the evening just before dinner so we can clean
away the day’s dirt and be clean when we sit down for dinner.
At dinner,
THERE IS ALWAYS SO MUCH FOOD. Actually,
at all meals, there is a lot of food. At
mealtimes I am offered a ton of food, and given strange looks when I do not pile
my plate up or go back for second and third helpings. Although we do not have the endless varieties available in the United States, there is still a lot of delicious food! Breakfast at my house usually consists of
coffee and bread with peanut butter or eggs.
I am given a snack of crackers
and a juice box to take with me to class (this seems to be standard for all
Peace Corps Trainees here… most of us are given this type of morning
snack). For lunch most weekdays, I walk
home to eat lunch – usually pasta or rice, with some form of salad (cabbage,
tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, onions, carrots, or other local vegetables), and
fruit for dessert. If I return home
right after school, we will sit down for afternoon tea with some form of snack,
only to eat dinner only a few hours later. Dinner usually includes rice or xima (type of
cornmeal dish), some form of meat (usually chicken or fish at my house), some
kind of vegetable, and fruit for dessert.
The fruit here is incredibly fresh and delicious. We have a papaya tree
in our backyard, and fresh papaya has become my new favorite food.
Last Saturday, we celebrated my Mae’s birthday.
Since her actual birthday fell on a weekday, all of her kids, several family
and friends came in for the weekend to help her celebrate. Her daughters and sister arrived early the
morning began cooking right away. I
tried to help as much as I could, but really they did all of the work. We cooked up a feast, put on matching
capulanas (more on capulanas on a later date), and
entered the house to begin the ceremony for my Mae. There was singing (I couldn’t understand the
song, but it was incredibly upbeat and festive), and dancing as they wrapped a
matching capulana around my Mae and other elderly women who were in the house. When the singing ended, everyone stood in a
circle as all of her children, senior family members and friends made short
speeches to pay tribute to my Mae. I
didn’t need to understand their words to know that each of their speeches spoke
words of gratitude and well wishes to the incredibly special birthday lady!
Everyday I learn something new from my Mae. Sometimes it's life skills (like how to hand wash clothes - that is not fun), and other days I learn more about the history of Mozambique. As my Portuguese improves, I'm sure there is much more I can talk about - and I will try my best to keep you all updated more frequently. I have just secured decent internet service for my phone an laptop - so please feel free to contact me if you wish to hear more!
