Spring Break!

Spring Break – the two words I looked forward to in college, but even more so as a teacher. Being a teacher in Mozambique was no exception. Two weeks of freedom. Two weeks away from site. Two weeks to do whatever I wanted… well kind of.

The last week of the trimester, also the first week of August was unlike any other week in the trimester. Nobody was around. People had already started leaving for vacation. All that was done at school was handing back the provincial exams in such a fashion that no reviewing or teaching actually happened. The students waited to get their exams, and after about an hour at school, they all headed home. After handing back my exams, and realizing that teaching just wasn’t going to happen, I packed my bag and started getting ready for SPRING BREAK!

That Friday, I left in the morning to get out to Invinha to see my friends who live out there. I arrived mid-morning and quickly realized that their school was in the middle of calculating grades with the professors, so I hung out in my friend’s house for the day. I studied for the GRE, watched TV shows and movies, and just relaxed. The following day, Saturday, Amanda and I headed into the city (Gurué) to do some shopping, and I dropped off a capulana to get a skirt made! I am so excited to pick it up. I am going to have pants and a maxi-dress made next! We bought some capulanas and I saw a man wearing a 2011 Texas Rangers World Series jersey of my favorite player! I was so excited that I asked him how much I could purchase the shirt from him for. We agreed on a price, 100 mets, and then went to his house so he could change shirts! I actually bought a shirt off a guy’s back – I am officially a PCV now! My time in Invinha was very nice and relaxing. It was very similar to how I spend my days in Nauela, but with the added bonus of energy. I studied quite a bit for the GRE, as I’m taking it in less than four months! Gotta love thinking about post-Peace Corps life… grad school? Studying for the GRE with someone else is so much more fun than studying alone! Late Sunday afternoon, a bunch of other volunteers from my group came into town for a few days. It was nice to see them and catch up with them, but I was sad my quiet relaxing weekend had come to an end.

The group of 21ers that all met up in Invinha for a night. We come from many different provinces: Gaza, Zambezia, Tete, Manica, Inhambane, and Niassa!

Monday morning I left Invinha bright and early (before the sun had actually risen). I was out looking for a car around 5am and caught a ride around 5:30am. I made it to Nampavou, the crossroads or fork in the road between Alto Molòcué/Nampula and Gurué, at a pretty decent time… or so I thought. I ended up waiting for about three hours for a car to get to Nampula. The car I got was with an Asian man that didn’t speak English or Portuguese! I did a lot of gestures to see if I could go with him to Nampula, and he gave me a ride! Along the way we listened to the same 10-12 music tracks the entire three hours. At first they were great, but by the time we got to Nampula, I was so done with that music. Along the way he stopped in a tiny little town and bought us some Cokes. It was great as I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink all day – oh the luxuries of traveling in Mozambique. When I arrived in Nampula, we started using an app in his phone to communicate about where he was going in the city and where I needed to go – it didn’t work so well. Eventually I got out of the car and started looking for a car to take me to the police control on the other side of the city. Over the course of time, two different people gave me rides through the city. One guy, who knew some other Peace Corps Volunteers, offered to buy me lunch if I wanted to wait for him to head in the direction I needed to go, but I turned him down. It was already getting late (well, it was lunchtime) and I wanted to arrive at my destination! At the police control, I didn’t have to wait long before a car came that was going in my direction! They gave me a ride to Nicavala, where I got in a chapa to head to Muecate to visit my friend Gabriela. I arrived at her site around 2pm, which was much later than I had originally hoped. We made the best of the afternoon – she showed me around her site some, we bought ingredients for dinner, and we chatted over a few beers. It was a great time catching up with a good friend who I hadn’t seen for a while. I need to make it a point to get back over to her side of Nampula province to visit again – and my friend Julie in Monapo. We ended up making a delicious Chinese veggie stirfry. Gabriela is an amazing cook, and I was so excited to see her in action in the kitchen. The stirfry turned out wonderfully as well! We sat outside chatting for a while until I had to go to bed… I was getting up at 4am the following morning and needed some sleep.

The delicious, homemade Chinese stirfry. For a little while we ate by candlelight as the power had gone out. It was amazing food.

Tuesday morning came too quick, but I woke up, packed up my stuff and cleaned up a bit and was out on the street walking by 4:45am. I found a chapa heading back to Nicavala at 5am and it left almost immediately. No circling the town looking for other passengers… no waiting for others to show up… it just left. We were in Nicavala by 5:30am and I found a car almost immediately to take me to Namiolo. Once in Namiolo I waited only a little bit before finding a car going directly to Pemba, Cabo Delgado! I was amazed. This was the second time I found a car going to Pemba! What luck! He drove so quickly that we ended up taking a breakfast break for him in Chuire, Cabo Delgado. He offered to buy me breakfast, but I wasn’t hungry, so I settled for a Coke. (That makes two cokes purchased for me in two days of travel!) We had to run a few errands for his work, but I’m convinced he was just trying to show off how rich he was – he had so much land and so many animals. After the quick little side trip, we were back on the road. He ended up going exactly where I needed to go, so he was able to drop me off at Kristina’s house! It was a great ride. I was at the house before 10am! Kristina was amazed I had made it so quickly, and frankly so was I! We went into the city to grab some food for lunch and then just had a relaxing afternoon at her house. The whole time I was in Pemba, I spent my days with Kristina, on the beach, or just relaxing. I wasn’t there to see Pemba… I was there to see my friend, who happened to live there. Some of the same people I was in Invinha with finally made it to Pemba on Thursday morning after a long, terrible day of traveling the previous day. Again, I was glad to hang out with them, but I was sad the quiet, lonely house was now full of people. I don’t know how Kristina and Rayna constantly have visitors! Pemba was great though. I got some color, dipped in the Indian Ocean, and went for some walks on the beach. We also made delicious food – hummus and eggplant parmesan were two highlights! We ate delicious pizza (yes, chicken and pineapple pizza is very good) and drank a few too many beers. I also made sure to see the ex-pats that I met the last time I was in Pemba. They invited Kristina and I over for a swim in the ocean (they live on basically a private beach) and some pre-dinner snacks. I always love going over to their house. It is so rejuvenating. I even rinsed off in a warm shower after the swim! Talk about a lovely afternoon! I was planning on leaving Pemba on Saturday to go to Monapo to visit another friend, but ended up staying an extra day. I just didn’t want to have two days of traveling in a row, when I could just have one longer day of travel.

The sunset was just beautiful as was setting over the Indian Ocean. This is the view from John and Mary Lou’s house. It was just gorgeous.

Sunday morning seven of us (six volunteers and one counterpart) left Pemba for Nampula. We woke up at 3:30am and were picked up by one of the counterpart’s friend at 3:50am. We were at the bus station by 4am! As we were waiting, I couldn’t help but realize that it was too much stimulation for me that early in the morning. One bus was there, but it was already full, so we got off and waited for the second bus that was on its way to the station. When it arrived, there was so much commotion and fighting to get on the bus. I couldn’t believe the madness that was happening around me. Everyone was fighting to push past each other to get on the bus – all because they wanted a seat! Luckily two of our friends had bought our tickets for us the day before, so we were “guaranteed” a seat. A few had to bump people out of the seats, but the rest of us were happy to find our seats empty. I was sitting next to two women who each had a child on their lap. Across the aisle, three children were crammed in the seats that were made for two. Behind me there were two men yelling and physically fighting people who tried to get in those seats. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed at 4am. Women entered the bus and started verbally assaulting the men behind me, and they were pushing their way through the throng of people in the aisle. They yelled and screamed and shouted insults at each other in Portuguese and different local languages. Finally everyone settled down, the men moved and the women got off the bus – four children were traveling in a row of seats made for three. I quickly found out it wasn’t how many people were on the bus, but how many seats you occupied. For big families, they wanted the row of three seats because they could cram more people in and only have to pay for three seats (each seat was 400 mets). I’m not sure how much the standing people had to pay, but they did pay something – I assume 400 mets as well, but who knows. At every stop we made along the way, people in small towns rushed up to the windows of the bus selling different things to the patrons inside. It was pure madness. I probably will never take one of those buses again – in my opinion, there are other, more comfortable, less chaotic ways of travel. Around 10am we had arrived in Nampula City! We found a city chapa to take us a few blocks and then we walked about 100 yards to the hotel – the beautiful hotel that had energy, hot running water, and WiFi. Talk about a lovely week ahead of us. We were able to check into our rooms (pretty sure we were the first volunteers to arrive), shower, and then we headed out for lunch. Kristina, her counterpart, and I went to a restaurant down the road a bit to get meio frango (a half chicken), which also came with fries, a small salad, and some bread – SO MUCH FOOD, and some cokes. It was a great lunch and something I had been looking forward to eating! That afternoon Kristina and I relaxed in the hotel, I skyped mom and dad, and then we walked a little around Nampula to pick up some ice cream, chocolate, and other obviously necessary items to indulge on for the week. That night began our long week learning about EGRA – the literacy program to teach young children how to read and write in Portuguese.

Monday morning we grabbed breakfast and then had the first of five long days, 8am-4pm, with the trainers of EGRA from Livro Aberto. They live in Maputo and came up to Nampula for the training. Tuesday after lunch, we went to a local Nampula primary school and worked with real children. We brought books, snacks, water, and ways to make nametags for the children. We read books aloud to the children while others did small evaluations about the letter names, sounds, and how to hold a book with a few kids. We also let the kids read individually for a little while. It was a great experience. We learned different methods of teaching kids how to read and write the letters as well as how we can make this group FUN. There’s no point in having a group to teach kids how to read and write if it’s going to be boring… part of learning is having fun, while being educational. Friday we went back to the school in the morning and worked with the same group of kids. This time we had more activities and things for them to do instead of just reading individually for a while. The kids seemed to really enjoy it! They even asked us when we were coming back! It broke my heart that we weren’t as well all lived in different provinces and no one would be in Nampula to continue reading with these kids. It made me more motivated to go back to Nauela and get this thing off and running with the kids of my community! If these kids enjoyed two days of it, then surely my kids would too!

Adelina, my counterpart, and I working at the conference.

Reading with a child who wasn’t interested in listening to the “read aloud” story, but wanted me to read to her.

Our adorable reading group. These kids loved reading with us. (We were the only group that had no Mozambican counterpart in it.)

All of the students who participated, the counterparts, and Peace Corps Volunteers that worked at this primary school during our time there. I think we made a little bit of an impact on them!

My awesome counterpart, Adelina, who came with me to the conference. She was one of three female counterparts!

Adelina and I after she received her certificate of completion! (Certificates here are a big deal, and they love to show them off to the people back in their towns – for example, she showed the Pedagogical Director at the primary school!)

Saturday morning I left the hotel around 6:30am. The conference was over. The use of unlimited hot showers and energy had come to an end. I was ready to get home. I took a city chapa as close to the spot I needed to be as I could. I ran into Amanda who had just dropped her sister off at the airport the previous day (her sister came to visit for a week from America). We got a car pretty quickly and were on the road by 7:05am. It took us a little longer than I would have liked to get to Alto Molòcué, but I made it! The car was continuing on to Gurué, so Amanda stayed put! I started looking for a chapa to take me back to Nauela – I was ready to be home! I did some quick shopping in the market in Alto Molòcué and found a car pretty soon after. That chapa had some mechanical issues, so I got out and started looking for another. One passed not too long after and I jumped in. The chapa was incredibly empty! I was surprised it was actually leaving Alto Molòcué. The ride was pretty quick; we didn’t make too many stops, as there were hardly any people inside or traveling that day. When I arrived home, I said all my hellos to my neighbors and Max was super excited to see me! My neighbors gave me some xima and beans for lunch (how sweet) because they said I was probably hungry from traveling all day and it was now 12:30pm (and boy were they right!). I enjoyed the lunch with them and then quickly realized my house had no water. Fausia wasn’t exactly sure when I was going to return, so she hadn’t filled up ANY of the buckets in my house. After realizing she was really far away from where we lived, I decided to get water on my own. My neighbor girl, Tionjue, helped me some. We each carried a bucket of water back to my house, but when I went back to get another bucket… there was an accident. The bucket wasn’t sitting well on top of my head, so when I bobbled a little, it completely fell down and water went EVERYWHERE. I was so ashamed! I had just spilled and wasted an entire bucket of water! Luckily nobody saw it happen, but they saw the aftermath of the water on the ground. Oh well. My host father made me feel a ton better! He said I wasn’t used to carrying water so it’s okay – they do it all the time and have done it all their lives, so it’s normal for them. He told me not to be embarrassed or ashamed for what happened – at least I tried! Those statements made me feel a lot better! 

Max and me after my long journey home. He was so excited I was back – two weeks away was a long time!

After two weeks away from site, I felt so happy to be back in Nauela. Even though Nauela is a tough site and I feel isolated sometimes, I know this is home. My friends and family are here. This is where I’m meant to be.

Wow. 11 months done. I only have 16 more to go. Time is moving too quickly here. This week is the first week of the third trimester. I only have this last trimester to go before I’m home visiting my family in America for three full weeks!